The third EU-CELAC summit begins with big question marks

After eight years without the regional bilateral forum, the meeting of heads of state and government returns with issues on the agenda such as confronting climate change, environmental transformation, digital transformation, defending human rights, peace, innovation, and combating inequality.

They are undoubtedly urgent issues, but the recent past raises doubts about the relations of domination imposed by the North on the South, which is most affected by the evils that overwhelm humanity.

For two days, leaders representing 60 countries, 33 from CELAC and 27 from the European Union, and more than 1 billion people, will have the opportunity to build a common path to meet the challenges.

The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, as President of the Pro Tempor de Silac, will lead the discussions.

If the EU is willing to set aside compulsions and behaviors reminiscent of colonialism and neo-colonialism, it will have to show this, and indeed it has just given a signal to the contrary.

Before the third summit, on July 13 and 14, the Europeans organized a forum on bi-regional civil society, in which they chose guests, speakers and topics, and unleashed criticism for the lack of transparency and consensus.

In statements to Prensa Latina, Belgian MEP Marc Potenga called for a meeting that would allow for the development of equal relations.

He commented that we are facing a European Union that is trying to impose its will, a policy that defends the interests of multinational companies, instead of promoting relations between equals and winners.

According to Potenga, the ruling class in the European Union adopts paternalistic positions, far from respecting sovereignty and the principle of mutual benefit.

He pointed out the need to reverse this vision, hence the importance of the People’s Summit, referring to the forum that will be held in parallel at the Free University of Brussels.

MEP stressed that social movements, trade unions and other actors from European civil society, Latin America and the Caribbean will join hands at this meeting so that the desire for rapprochement between peoples prevails.

With regard to the summit of peoples, the Brazilian activist from the movement of the landless, Rodrigo Soni, considered it a meeting to monitor and pressure so that heads of state and government meet in the other forum to defend the bonds of respect for sovereignty and independence.

A member of the General Secretariat of the International Assembly of Peoples told Prensa Latina that we do not accept any other relations that subject our region to a new colonial past, hence the importance of our summit for social movements.

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